The definition of human resource planning is a ongoing examination of the number and type of employees required by an organisation.

It is the process of analysing an organisations's need for employees and evaluating how this can be met from the internal and external labour markets.

but human resource planning is of major importance because the organisation needs to be prepared as far as possible for the changes in its internal and external environments.

The success of an organisation's goals for increasing market share, increasing production or developing new products depends on having the right number of employees with the appropriate skills and qualification when they are required.

Information acquired through planning provides the foundation of HR strategies which help the organisation to achieve its objectives by:

HR planning is an essential part of the overall cooperate strategy. Planning for human resources cannot be done successfully without consultation with line managers and with reference to the organisation's strategic plan.

There are four main stages in the planning process:

1 Stocktaking - Before the organisation plans ahead for its staffing and skill requirements, it is important to examine the current situation both internally and externally.

This information is gathered from CV's, performance appraisals and forms completed by employees specifically for this purpose. The final inventory should include a complete list of employees by:

This is such a valuable database as some managers may not be aware of additional skills employees have other than those needed to perform the jobs they were employed to do.

The external environment knowledge of the labour market, product market and current employment legislation is necessary for human resource planning. In addition it is also necessary to keep abreast of developments in technology that might effect the organisation.

Examination of the organisation's future plans aids the calculation of future demand for labour.
Analysis of past trends and seasonal variations.

3 Planning: Having assessed the future staffing requirements of the organisation, decisions must be made on how to deal with either a surplus or a shortage of workers.

If forecasting indicates a future shortage of workers, plans will have to be made to try and retain current employees and recruit new ones.

HR plans are made at a particular time and it is possible that changes within the organisation could have arisen. Therefore internal and external environments need to be monitored for any signs of change and plans reviewed.